This past weekend, Brandeis hosted its annual Parliamentary debate tournament, featuring over 73 teams, including several from Ivy League schools.The rounds took place on Friday and Saturday. As a rule, the team hosting a debate tournament does not compete, the Brandeis team and other members of the community who were trained on Tuesday and Thursday judged the competition. Greg Wilson, PhD. '02, a Boston University English professor and former Brandeis debate coach, trained the judges.

The tournament format included both a round-robin segment and a single-elimination bracket. On Friday afternoon, each team had three rounds, and then another two on Saturday morning. Then, following a lunch banquet, the top eight teams were announced. Those teams were matched against each other in a final, single-elimination tournament.

Teams from Boston University, MIT, MIT/Cornell, Amherst/Smith, and Princeton were included in the final eight. (many universities fielded more than one team). The semifinals consisted of the teams from BU, MIT and Yale. In the end, the BU team, called "Two Guys Walk Into A Tournament," came away with top honors.

Many participants said they were satisfied with Brandeis' hosting skills. These students praised the food, the housing and the party thrown for them Saturday night.

"They've been exceptional, and they've run the tournament on time which is rare," Alex Chilton, a University of Pennsylvania competitor, said.

"They were very efficient, very quick with the (judging),"Andrei Mamolea of Cornell said. "Also, we got couches to sleep on instead of floors, which is unusual."

Mamolea also said he enjoyed the format of the tournament, which was opposition choice. The rules of debate dictate that there are two sides in every round, Government and Opposition (it is randomly chosen which team gets which side). In most tournaments, Government chooses the issue in question and which side they want to defend. In the opposition choice format, however, Government chooses the case and the two sides, but Opposition gets to choose which side they want to defend. To prevent unfair advantages, no team was given Government or Opposition more than three times during the five initial rounds.

Jared Smith '06 was a competition judge. "I wanted to try something new, a different activity," he said.

Although Smith had little experience with debate before, he said that Wilson made the criteria for judging simple to understand. "He made a sheet and was pretty clear on everything; he knew what he was talking about," Smith said. "They taught you about different parts of a debate and what to look for in judging, and they put on a mock debate so we could get a feel for it."

Smith said he enjoyed the experience, and gained a new respect for the competitors, adding "it takes a lot of talent to be a good debater; it's not an easy thing to do."

Some attendees, however, did criticize certain aspects of the tournament's organization. "I felt like they could have condensed it a little better in terms of the locations," Emerson's Patrick Zornow said. Other competitors said they shared his sentiments, but added logistical problems occur at most large debate tournaments.

Kevin Grinberg '03, a member of the Brandeis team and tournament co-director with Rob Greenberg '03, said he was pleased with the way the tournament turned out. "It was on-time, fun and exceptionally fair. I think we have upheld the high standards that people have come to expect from Brandeis Debate, and I look forward to setting a new standard when we host Nationals in the spring," Grinberg said.